After having posted the recipe for the Bread of Three Rivers, Mike Avery, the baker who had initially told me about the book, wrote me to explain his take on this recipe, a bread that he sells in his bakery. It was a bit cryptic, but I think I understood the essential (Mike, I hope you'll let me know what you think!) He changed the hydration level and I decided to keep it the same while following his technique. OK, I admit that it was because I was a bit lazy to change all my calculations.

The resulting bread is of better quality than the first recipe, with better, more complex taste and a more elastic and open crumb. It keeps much better as well. It doesn't resemble a classic bakery bread, it is much better.

La croûte du pain a des petits points partout car je voulais le vaporiser juste avant de le mettre au four mais mon vaporisateur n'avais pas assez d'eau et ça a fait des goutelettesThe bread has dots on it because I decided to try misting it before baking, but I didn't have enough water in my mister and it made droplets. Oh well

Mix all the ingredients and knead until the dough forms a nice ball, elastic and smooth.Place it in a bowl and cover. Do a stretch and fold every 20-30 min.After about 1-1h30, when the dough has nicely risen, scale and do a mise en forme. Cover and let rest 15 min.Shape two bâtards (or whatever shape you want. I wanted to compare with the other recipe so I did the same) and place them in a couche.Place them, covered, in the fridge all night. (I cheated and left them all day until late afternoon in order to have fresh bread for dinner).Preheat the oven to 250°C.Turn the bâtards on to the floured peel. Do the incisions. Steam the oven well and slide the bâtards in to the oven. Steam a bit more.Let them bake around 25 mn making sure they don't brown too much. OK, I didn't actually time because my timer is broken, so watch!Let cool on a rack before slicing.

Thanks for the com. These aren't baguettes and the crumb isn't supposed to be open, actually. But if you look on other pages here, you'll read about my Great Baguette Quest (which can also be seen on The Fresh Loaf). Your sourdough baguette recipe sounds very interesting, very little starter and a very long fermentation. All the pure sourdough baguettes I have tried are too chewy for my taste and that's why I put a bit of yeast in my version. But, this said, I'd be happy to try yours and when I do, I'll let you know.
Jane

I am delighted that you tried my cryptic comments and turned them into a wonderful bread! That recipe is one that I don't give out often. More than a few people who bought that bread from me have said "it is the best bread I have ever had." I like it also, but wouldn't praise it that highly.

As one person in your blog commented, it is almost like not using yeast. The very classic Poolish technique was invented after the introduction of commercial bakers yeast. In the mid to late 1800's bakers switched from sourdough to bakers yeast. In the hands of the inexperienced, yeast is more consistent than sourdough. And it is less work. However, bakers soon discovered two things.

Customers complained the new bread didn't have as much taste as the old bread. And the baker discovered they had to pay the yeast companies every time they made bread. Bakers are about the thriftiest (OK, cheapest) people on this planet. To a baker, sourdough is free. You feed the sourdough and it is turned into bread with no waste.

The answer to both questions was the same. Use less yeast. LOTS less yeast. In Italy, they use a stiffer dough called a Biga. In Poland, Austria and France, they use a batter called a poolish. Using a VERY small amount of yeast and allowing it to grow over a long period of time - 12 to 18 hours - allows flavors to develop. Long rises really help develop flavors, and as most bakers will tell you, the longer bread takes to make, the longer it will last. In storage tests, my sourdough breads typically lasted 21 days before mold set in, my poolish breads about 14.

I like sourdough breads, but I also like yeasted breads. Both can have wonderful, if different, flavors.

Sorry for the long, and English, post. I hope Babelfish will work better for your readers than it has for me.

Hi Soundman!
The poolish was held at about 20°C, I'd say. Maybe 19°C.
The overnight rest changes everything. If you compare the two Three River recipes, one isn't made with a poolish and is done basically in a straight dough method. It is very nice bread, but it had to be eaten fresh. Mike's version has more depth of flavor, partly from the poolish, but a lot comes from the over night in the fridge as well. I can say this because I make a lot of bread that uses this technique and can recognize the difference. If I'm rushed, I have been known to skip it and the bread is not the same. I have also made bread early in the morning and stuck it in the fridge for about a 6 hr period and that does help, too. The night in the fridge also changes the texture of the bread. The dough is easier to handle and so it is easier to maintain the bubbles that form. I don't know if this is "fact", but it is what I have noticed, since the fermentation continues in the fridge and is slowed, then maybe stopped, the bubbles form, but differently from a fast fermentation. They get big and the cold dough stretches differently. So, after, during the handling, they stay better. And the resulting crumb is very open. Without the cold fermentation, this can be obtained with a very high hydration dough, but then you don't get the flavor and aroma that develops.